How to stop tearing up when you cut a lot of onions

When you cut alot of onions with your preferred knife. How do you stop from tearing up ?

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Sometime I tear and sometime I don’t. I think there are a lot of “draw of the luck” with the onion themselves. I am sure you heard of all kind of techniques like refrigerating the onions overnight or use the sharpness knife…etc. I think the one thing that seems to help/hurt is to keep the head up far away. Having my head placed directly on top of the onions do not help at all.

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Great topic for a separate thread - can’t believe it doesn’t exist already!

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Start it . saregama

Let’s ask a moderator to help us to split it out. (I will)

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Wear goggles.

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I have super long arms. I lean way back

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Dangle a slice of bread from your mouth

Be quick–place in container–cover–put in the fridge.

I’ve not had that issue in eons. Perhaps my knives are sharper than they used to be, or onions have been bred to no longer have that bite (?).

Freeze the onion :hugs:

Wear contact lenses or wear goggles.
Cover cut onions with kitchen towel.

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I used to have an employee who would slice onions, using a slicer, holding half a sub/hoagie/grinder/hero roll in his mouth. He swore it prevented tearing. I don’t know if it worked but he did look hilarious.

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When I have a lot to chop I go for the snorkel and mask.

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Vidalias or other sweet onions produce absolutely no tears for me like yellow onions. Of course I realize that some recipes specifically admonish to use the stronger onions. I …cheat. As for red onions, it’s hit or miss. If I’m slicing onions to use on a burger or a sub, sometimes I’ll soak the slices in ice water for a while to get rid of the “bite”.

A friend of mine actually has onion goggles.

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I find it is hit or miss. I also think some people may just be more sensitive than others. Sometimes even shallots will set me off, if I am chopping up a large enough quantity.



This is good. I wear the 30-day/night lenses (oh-so imaginatively named, “Night & Day”) and don’t really notice any issues. Maybe it just reduces the surface area available for the volatiles to glom onto. But other contacts that I wore for maybe 10 years before trying these didn’t seem as protective.

Still, if I’m going to cut a lot, like if making a big batch French onion soup, I’ll fall back on what I used to do before I started wearing these - place a small fan to blow across the cutting board to keep the sulfide compounds moving away from me.

PS - if you ever see someone’s French onion soup that starts with “X pounds of Vidalia or other sweet onion”, run the other way. I foolishly made one such and it was like eating candy it was so sweet.

That was the “use yellow onions” recipe example I was thinking about. And maybe I don’t tear up because I wear contacts!:eyes:

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I cut off the end opposite the root, and then slice in half down through the root leaving it intact on both halves. Peel and slice away… hasn’t really been an issue for me (I mostly use white onions).

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I think it was ATK that said to put onions in the fridge or freezer for a little while. I used put into fridge for 2 hours and it really helps.

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